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Tour de l'Avenir - Stage 9 starts in Cham

featured in News & reviews Author Ellie Mahoney, Chamonix Editor Updated

Last Friday saw over 100 of the world's best up and coming cyclists arrive in Chamonix for the 9th stage of the Tour de l'Avenir (Tour of the Future). Viewed by many to be the “little bother” of the Tour de France, the Tour de l'Avenir is an international cycle race for competitors 25 years and under and is ridden in 10 stages.

This year's 43rd edition followed a 1384 km route from Charleroi in Belgium to Marcinelle in Savoie, via the Massifs des Voges, Jura and the Alps. The penultimate stage that started in Chamonix was a time trial over a 24.5 km route to Finhaut in Switzerland via the Col des Montets.

Prior to the start at 2pm, the teams and their support vehicles were dotted around the Place de Mont Blanc and Place de Poilu preparing for the off. The competitors themselves were put through a fairly gruelling warm up by their coaches on what was already a hot day with a big climb ahead. Over 100 gendarmes arrived on motorcycles, each one ready to accompany a cyclist along the route followed by the team support vehicle which carried an array of spare bikes, spare wheels and random friends and family by the looks of it! The cyclists were released at one minute intervals from the start gate at Place du Mont Blanc. From here they headed up Rue Joseph Vallot, towards Flégère and up through Argentière and the Col des Montets before descending into Switzerland and the final climb up to the finish line in Finhaut.

The favourite to win the stage was Spaniard Moises Duenas who was proving to be one of the best climbers of the tour. In addition to the standard entourage, he was also accompanied by a TV crew and had a camera inches from his nose for the duration of the stage. Although he was beaten by 0.04 seconds by Dutchman Stef Clement on this stage, Duenas went on to become overall winner of the 2006 Tour de l'Avenir, beating Robert Gesink (NED) into second place by a minute.